Spinach tumbler



April 20, 1948. G. D. GARDNER SPINACH TUMBLER Filed July 6, 1945 2Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR -G'eorge .D. Gardn er .p I l ATTORNEYS April 20,1948.

G. D. GARDNER 2,440,008

SPINACH TUMBLER Filed July 6, 1945 2 sheets sheet 2 INVENTOR GeorgeDGardner ATTORNEYS Patented Apr. 20, 1948 UNITED STATE PATENT OFFICE Thisinvention relates to an improved means for dry cleaning spinach.

Under present practices spinach is cleaned preparatory to canning,dehydrating or quick freezing the same by passing it through a circularforaminous trommel while at the same time spraying the same with jets ofwater.

There are certain objections to this type of cleaning. The spinachleaves are fresh and very succulent when brought to the processingfactory, and when wetted and tumbled in the trommel the spinach tends toball-up or twist itself into long strings. to handle and it frequentlyhappens that dirt and debris will lodge within the folds of the bailedor twisted mass.

It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a meanswhereby the spinach may be prepared without wetting and so handled thatthe dirt, small pieces of leaves, twigs and other debris may be readilydislodged and separated from the full sized leaves leaving the latterready for handling in the processing thereof. This makes for a very muchcleaner and better finished product whether the spinach is canned,dehydrated or quick frozen.

A further object of the invention is to produce a simple and inexpensivedevice and yet one which will be exceedingly eifective for the purposefor which it is designed.

These objects are accomplished by means of such structure and relativearrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the followingspecification and claim.

In the drawings similar characters of reference indicate similar partsin the several views.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved spinach dry cleaning device.

Figure 2 is an end view of the same.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary section of one of the fiat sides of thetrommel showing elongated slots formed therein. A

Figure 4 is an end view of a modified form of trommel from that shown inFigure 2.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of reference on thedrawings my improved device comprises generally a supporting frame Fwhich supports a trough T. The upper portions of the sides of the troughas at I stand vertically and the lower portions 2 thereof inclinedownwardly to terminate in a relatively narrow flush or sluice box 3.

Mounted on rollers 4 within the trough T, is my improved trommel 5 whichmay be rotated by any suitable drive means as for instance a gear 6Either the balls or strings are hard 1 Claim. (01. 51-164) driven bysuitable motor drive pinion indicated generally at I.

The trommel 5 is preferably hexagonal in cross section providing sixilat walls 8 preferably joined together at their edges by relativelynarrow flat webs 9.

These flat sides 8 are each provided with a plurality of elongated slotsI0. These slots are of a size sufiicient to allow dirt, small pieces ofspinach leaves and twigs to pass therethrough, but are of insufficientsize to allow the full spinach leaves to pass therethrough or becomelodged therein.

In using the device, unwetted spinach is fed into the upper end of thetrommel 5 by suitable chute I I. The leaves of the spinach arerelatively wide and flat and as fed into the trommel they tend to layflat on the lower flat sides 8. Then as the trommel turns these flatleaves are gradually up-edged and tumble down into the trommel thusdischarging dirt, pieces of leaves and twigs from between the leaves andout through the elongated slots Ill into the trough T where they falldown into the sluice box 3. Water may be admitted to the sluice box 3through an inlet I2 and this water together with the accumulated dirtand debris may be discharged at the opposite end of the sluice box as atI3. The entire sluice box 3 of the trough T lies in a plane which isbelow the bottom of the trommel 5. The inlet I2 delivers the water intothe sluice box .3 at one end and the outlet I3 at the other end ispreferably from the bottom of the sluice box and of a diameterrelatively much larger than the diameter of the inlet I 2. This willallow the water 7 flowing through the sluice box together with the dirtand debris to continuously discharge out of the sluice box so that thewater level therein will never rise to a point where it will flow intothe trommel.

The relatively fiat narrow corner plates 9 prevent the spinach leavesfrom tending to lodge in these corners.

While I have found that the perfectly flat uninterrupted sides of thehexagonal shaped trommel is probably suiflcient to continuously carrythe spinach leaves up and turn them over and over, nevertheless, ifdesired, there may be provided lifting vanes I4 projecting outwardlyfrom the plates 9 as shown in Figure 4 and which will assure thepositive carrying up and over of the spinach leaves.

I am aware that trommels, generally for use in separating materials, areold but my inventive concept is that of providing the hexagonal flatside trommel for the specific purpose of handling the spinach leaves dryand in such a manner as to thoroughly clean them without having toresort to any flush water being applied directly to the spinach leaveswithin the trommel.

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that there hasbeen produced such a device as substantially fulfills the objects of theinvention as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferredconstruction of the device, still in practice such deviations from suchdetail may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit ofthe invention, as defined by the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and useful anddesire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

A device for dry cleaning spinach comprising a revolvable foraminoustrommel, such trommel being substantially hexagonal in cross section topresent relatively wide flat surfaces upon which spinach leaves may liein their normal unwetted state when moved through the trommel,relatively narrow flat webs connecting adjacent ones of said 4 flatsurfaces, and means associated with the trommel to divert and carry awayforeign material which may be discharged through the openings in suchforaminous trommel.

GEORGE D. GARDNER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,290,396 Stee're Jan. 7, 19191,457,284 Sells May 29, 1923 1,475,929 ,1 Buckham Dec. 4, 1923 1,724,674Merseles Aug. 13, 1929 1,781,301 Randall Nov. 11, 1930 2,018,157 UrschelOct. 22, 1935 2,210,584 Hileman et al. Aug. 6, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTSNumber Country v Date 19,869 Great Britain 1904 221,090 Germany Apr, 19,1910

